God blessed me with a creative soul, knowing it would comfort and nurture me in this crazy world.
May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us-- yes, establish the work of our hands.
Psalm 90:17

Saturday, August 30, 2008

OK, here's another bottle cap pincushion. It's actually been quiet in my neighborhood today and I'm taking advantage of it by accomplishing a little needlework. Don't mean to bore you with these pincushions, but they truly are addicting and I love to make them! (Patti.....this one is coming your way!) I finally remembered to take a photo next to a coin so that you can see how tiny these bottle cap pincushions really are. They fit nicely in your sewing box. This one is in a duck candy wrapper.

Lastly, this photo is from the bottom, showing the little labels that I made to "sign" my work. It's just printed onto iron-on computer fabric and then cut out and ironed to the bottom. Simple and effective.

I love making knitted dish cloths! They are fairly quick projects and very useful. I always hesitate to use them at first, then after the first dunk in the sink, I'm ready to go. I can't seem to make myself use them on really messy foods or spills (like spaghetti sauce, for instance), but for overall washing, they do a great job. I usually have one in progress sitting on my coffee table, ready to pick up while watching TV. When I go to craft shows, I'm always amazed that these cloths sell somewhere between $1.50 to $4.00.......that hardly pays for the yarn, let alone the labor. I may be slow, but it takes me about 6+ hours to make one of these simple cloths. That's just the way it is with so many crafts. There is no way that we could charge by the hour and still expect someone to buy our product.

Friday, August 29, 2008

I forgot to tell you that I found this box of sewing supplies on my doorstep yesterday. While cleaning out his garage, a friend, Jerry, found this box of goodies collecting dust. They are from an old Montgomery Ward sewing machine, but they are low shank and will fit my current machines. I don't know if I'll ever use them, but it was fun sorting through them and seeing what they had to offer. Trash to treasure....!

I worked on a couple of Block of the Month kits yesterday. The bright yellow and green one is a Thangles series, their Buck a Block series. I'm not crazy about using Thangles as I find them more tedious than just making the blocks the "old fashioned way", but I have enjoyed the series. I'll be making a small table runner out of the 8" blocks. This is the eighth block, so I have a few months to go. I've chosen a bright purple marbled fabric for my sashing and borders.

The red, cream, and blue one is the last block in a 12 block series. I'm not crazy about this block, nor have I been very fond of many of the blocks. Still, it's been fun seeing what the block will be each month. These blocks are 12" and, as a general rule, I prefer smaller blocks. I doubt that I'll do anything with these blocks but, as I said, it's still been a fun series. Once I commited to the series, I was going to finish them, whether I used them in a quilt or not.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Have you seen WALL-E yet? It's delightful! I would have enjoyed it much more if it had not included the "people" and just stuck to WALL-E with his cute personality and antics. Pixar did an amazing job of giving this little figure of nuts and bolts such a charming, endearing, and expressive manner. Anyway, I found appliques and iron on transfers at Joann's. I'm not sure what I'll do with them yet. I'd love to buy several of the appliques and do a wall hanging or quilt, but they were fairly expensive. Thank goodness for Joann's coupons!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I finally finished one of the two bottle cap pincushions that I was working on. Seems like something always gets in the way when I'm trying to find quiet time. I forgot to put a coin next to the PC for scale, but it's about

Monday, August 25, 2008

Today, I'm working on some bottle cap pincushions. I'll post pics when they are finished. If I remember, I'll put a coin next to them so that you can visualize the scale. These pincushions are really cute, easy, and simple to make. Great projects when you don't have much time and they make wonderful gifts. They are made with a 2-litre bottle cap as a base, which makes them very tiny. I usually enclose a velcro dot so that they can be attached directly to a sewing machine. Here are a few examples of ones that I've already made (and given away). I put them in a candy wrapper and enclose them in a truffle box. Too cute!

Daily Blessing

About Me

I learned to sew when I was 4 years old. My dear Aunt Billie, now with the Lord, taught me how to make a simple pillow slip on her treadle sewing machine. Who knew that would be the beginning of a lifetime of creativity!